Friday, 8 November 2013

PLATY∏ FOR REAL

Wow so it's been a while since I talked about this man. I wrote about him around the end of last year. That's like, almost a whole year ago now. Imagine that. You don't actually have to imagine it cause it's happening RIGHT NOW. That's what's going on. Anyway, I'm very happy that Playπ (that's Platypi for those who don't know their π's from their φ's) has made some new music. Last time I wrote about this Brighton-based hip hop producer it was regarding his glitchy-as-it-is-swaggery song 'Lassitude'. A very nice song indeed.

This time around however, Platyπ (aka real-named person Alistair Hill) has uploaded something very different onto his SoundCloud page. Although the mainstay of his general repertoire - that is, the syncopated offbeats of hip hop - is still present, there seem to be a lot more elements at play here, something that gives the song a mature, accomplished feel. Perhaps it's just his use of samples that do it here. Everyone knows I love a well-placed sample or two, but that's beside the point. The point is that it sounds good and I like it a lot.

Utilising a sample that sounds like it could be from some cheesy 80s commercial - glittering pop bells and lush palm-tree evoking sounds, basically - the song leads into a sparse boom-bap-esque hip hop beat with thudding kicks and reverbing snare. Chopping and looping the sample creates the distinct feel of melodic white noise at some points, particularly for the part where the beat drops to make way for some lovely electric piano chord progressions that make their soft presence known for the rest of the song.

A softly distorted bass has been added, something that exudes a certain amount of funk, locking in with the kicks of the beat for maximum rhythmic effect. Speaking of effect, there's a great bit in the song (at 0:58 I think) where everything just cuts out for a beat, leaving a breathless space of nothing that allows the next beat to be pretty punch without adding in any build-up tricks. There are lots of different parts to this song - quite something considering it's only 2 minutes long. This brand of music could be easily aligned with vaporwave, perhaps just for its particular choice of sample use, but for me all it does is mark a change in sound for Platyπ; and not just any old change, but a seemingly natural change - something that, for any artist really, is a good thing.